Thursday, 7 February 2013

The Art and Science of Level Design

From my research its fairly apparent
that level design is as much as, if not more so a technical skill as
well as an artistic skill. In fact, its most definitely a
technical skill. Level design is a varied discipline which involves
various methods such as concepts, sketches, 3D models and
documentation to describe the interactive environment of a games
universe.

In earlier 2D video games, such as Mario or Sonic,
level design was somewhat more straightforward, it may of involved
simple but major elements of the game, such as the placing of
obstacles and enemies, power-ups. A designer would primarily focus on
the consistency of the levels most of the time concentrating on
making progressing levels in ascending order according to difficulty
rather than a progressing story line.

Today's level design for
next gen video games which include high detailed, 3D game
environments, some of which are vast, is some what of a herculean
task. It is an ongoing process throughout a games development from
pre-production all the way through to completion. This means that
level design is no longer the job of just one person or programmer.
Typically studios use a team of level designers consisting of
designers, programmers, artists and engineers who give input on every
detail from the placement of a crate or plant, to rolling landscapes,
aesthetic details such as texture budgets at certain locations,
colour use, lighting and environmental conditions.

Because the design process is a large
one, both in time and work, it will always be strategically and
comprehensively planned to follow a methodical procedure. Studios
will plan in various different ways but a typical design process will
include first and foremost (as with any other design process) an
idea. Gathering visual reference and the concepting, and most
importantly setting a world scale for the whole process to follow. 3D
blocking in, followed by texturing that will evolve in detail as the
design process progresses along with the development of the game.
Adding environmental and atmospheric conditions such as lighting,
rain, mist/ fog etc and perhaps further detailing and texturing. The
design will then move into final stages, any extra detailing will
need to be completed ready for testing, tweaking and bug checks ready
for the games release.

Level design has evolved massively over
a a short period of time to now include realistic dynamic lighting
effects as well as realist physics and now involves the design
taking place in level editors or game engines. Pre-programmed
software makes it easier for people with individual skill sets to
actively input into the design process, work can be carried out much
quicker and more efficiently, and there is much more scope and
control given to the user. For a while now, level editors have even
been included with games releases , a good example being the Unreal
Editor included with various Unreal games such as Unreal Tournament
allowing even the players, with no experience of video game design to
involve themselves in using pre-made assets included in various
editors to make there own levels. Another great example of a more
recent game to include a user controlled level editor is Little Big
Planet for the Playstation3. This game makes an exceptional approach
of actively designing the game around the mindset of an inbuilt level
creation tool for user created content and levels and not just as an
extra feature included with, instead of just being an extra feature
included with the game. It is now estimated that there are over 6
million user generated games and levels for little big planet which
is just astonishing. For some games it has even gone as far as user
generated content being sold, making just typical gamers, members of
the general public, in some cases hundreds of thousand of pounds per
year. This is becoming more of a big deal, so much so that certain
individual game companies, such as Valve, are taking great notice in
this shift in content generation by the gamers, which is starting to
evolve the business plans of major corporations and developers to
work alongside users making their own game content to share profits
and much more complicated financial business properties that I have
no idea about but I can assure you are readily being taken into
account! User generated game content is no doubt playing a major role
in the constantly evolving games industry, and some may go as far as
to say that our roles as game artists may be under threat as good
quality content only becomes easier to produce. On the other hand,
there is a clear difference between good quality content and high
quality and I'd like to think that there will most definitely be a
demand for video game content to be produced at a professional
capacity.

Level design revolves around certain important
rules, or better still, goals which it strives to produce. The
combined skills involved within a levels design of artists,
programmers, script writers, graphic designers, 3D modellers, sound
engineers ultimately has only a few main goals, whether the game is
set in a sci-fi world or a medieval England. To provide the gamer
with objectives and quality gameplay, and most importantly to create
an immersive experience.